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This inspired collection offers a new paradigm for moving the world beyond violence as the first, and often only, response to violence. Through essays and poetry, prayers and meditations, <i>Transforming Terror</i> powerfully demonstrates that terrorist violence—defined here as any attack on unarmed civilians—can never be stopped by a return to the thinking that created it. A diverse array of contributors—writers, healers, spiritual and political leaders, scientists, and activists, including Desmond Tutu, Huston Smith, Riane Eisler, Daniel Ellsberg, Amos Oz, Fatema Mernissi, Fritjof Capra, George Lakoff, Mahmoud Darwish, Terry Tempest Williams, and Jack Kornfield—considers how we might transform the conditions that produce terrorist acts and bring true healing to the victims of these acts. Broadly encompassing both the Islamic and Western worlds, the book explores the nature of consciousness and offers a blueprint for change that makes peace possible. From unforgettable firsthand accounts of terrorism, the book draws us into awareness of our ecological and economic interdependence, the need for connectedness, and the innate human capacity for compassion.

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Women, the Recited Qur'an, and Islamic Music in Contemporary Indonesia takes readers to the heart of religious musical praxis in Indonesia, home to the largest Muslim population in the world. Anne K. Rasmussen explores a rich public soundscape, where women recite the divine texts of the Qur'an, and where an extraordinary diversity of Arab-influenced Islamic musical styles and genres, also performed by women, flourishes. Based on unique and revealing ethnographic research beginning at the end of Suharto's «New Order» and continuing into the era of «Reformation,» the book considers the powerful role of music in the expression of religious nationalism. In particular, it focuses on musical style, women's roles, and the ideological and aesthetic issues raised by the Indonesian style of recitation.

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Goddess worship has long been a significant aspect of Hinduism. In this book David Kinsley, author of <i>The Sword and the Flute—Kali & Krsna: Dark Visions of the Terrible and the Sublime in Hindu Mythology</i>, sorts out the rich yet often chaotic history of Hindu goddess worship.

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This first Western-language translation of one of the great books of the Daoist religious tradition, the <i>Taiping jing</i>, or «Scripture on Great Peace,» documents early Chinese medieval thought and lays the groundwork for a more complete understanding of Daoism’s origins. Barbara Hendrischke, a leading expert on the Taiping jing in the West, has spent twenty-five years on this magisterial translation, which includes notes that contextualize the scripture’s political and religious significance.<br /><br /> Virtually unknown to scholars until the 1970s, the <i>Taiping jing</i> raises the hope for salvation in a practical manner by instructing men and women how to appease heaven and satisfy earth and thereby reverse the fate that thousands of years of human wrongdoing has brought about. The scripture stems from the beginnings of the Daoist religious movement, when ideas contained in the ancient <i>Laozi</i>were spread with missionary fervor among the population at large. The <i>Taiping jing</i> demonstrates how early Chinese medieval thought arose from the breakdown of the old imperial order and replaced it with a vision of a new, more diverse and fair society that would integrate outsiders—in particular women and people of a non-Chinese background.

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Written for everyone who loves and is simultaneously driven crazy by the holiday season, <I>Christmas: A Candid History </I>provides an enlightening, entertaining perspective on how the annual Yuletide celebration got to be what it is today. In a fascinating, concise tour through history, the book tells the story of Christmas—from its pre-Christian roots, through the birth of Jesus, to the holiday's spread across Europe into the Americas and beyond, and to its mind-boggling transformation through modern consumerism. Packed with intriguing stories, based on research into myriad sources, full of insights, the book explores the historical origins of traditions including Santa, the reindeer, gift giving, the Christmas tree, Christmas songs and movies, and more. The book also offers some provocative ideas for reclaiming the joy and meaning of this beloved, yet often frustrating, season amid the pressures of our fast-paced consumer culture. <br /><br /><b>DID YOU KNOW</b><br /><br />For three centuries Christians did not celebrate Christmas? <br /><br />Puritans in England and New England made Christmas observances illegal? <br /><br />St. Nicholas is an <I>elf </I>in the famous poem «The Night Before Christmas»? <br /><br />President Franklin Roosevelt changed the dateof Thanksgiving in order to lengthen the Christmas shopping season? <br /><br />Coca-Cola helped fashion Santa Claus's look in an advertising campaign?

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This deeply insightful ethnography explores the healing power of caring and intimacy in a small, closely bonded Apostolic congregation during Botswana’s HIV/AIDS pandemic. <i>Death in a Church of Life</i> paints a vivid picture of how members of the Baitshepi Church make strenuous efforts to sustain loving relationships amid widespread illness and death. Over the course of long-term fieldwork, Frederick Klaits discovered Baitshepi’s distinctly maternal ethos and the «spiritual» kinship embodied in the church’s nurturing fellowship practice. Klaits shows that for Baitshepi members, Christian faith is a form of moral passion that counters practices of divination and witchcraft with redemptive hymn singing, prayer, and the use of therapeutic substances. An online audio annex makes available examples of the church members’ preaching and song.

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Found in Common Worship: Times and Seasons, The Way of the Cross is a series of scripture-based devotions for personal or group use in Lent and Holy Week. This seasonal companion provides the full sequence of fifteen meditations, each accompanied by short reflections from three of today's very best spiritual writers.

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Are you looking for material to study in group during Lent? Reflections for Lent contains six weeks of notes taken from the annual edition of Reflections, covering Ash Wednesday to Easter Saturday. It’s ideal for individuals or groups seeking to follow the Lectionary for a shorter period of time. Also includes a simple form of daily prayer.

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Church Representation Rules is a vital tool for all those involved in parochial, diocesan and national Church governance. This 2020 edition introduces and explains significant changes introduced by the Archbishops’ Council in 2019 to simplify local church governance.

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Are you looking for material to study in group during Lent? Reflections for Lent contains six weeks of notes taken from the annual edition of Reflections, covering Ash Wednesday to Easter Saturday. It’s ideal for individuals or groups seeking to follow the Lectionary for a shorter period of time. Also includes a simple form of daily prayer.

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